Fish oil supplementation ameliorates fructose-induced hypertriglyceridemia and insulin resistance in adult male rhesus macaques

Abstract

Fish oil (FO) is a commonly used supplemental source of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), 2n-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that have been shown to have a variety of health benefits considered to beprotective against cardiometabolic diseases. Although the effects of EPA and DHA on lipid metabolism have beenextensively studied, not all of the metabolic effects of FO-derived n-3 PUFAs have been characterized. Our laboratoryrecently showed that a high-fructose diet in rhesus monkeys induces the features of metabolic syndrome (MetS) similar tothose observed in humans. Thus, we specifically wanted to evaluate the effects of FO in rhesus monkeys fed a highfructosediet and hypothesized that FO supplementation would mitigate the development of fructose-induced insulinresistance, dyslipidemia, and other cardiometabolic risk factors. In this study, adult monkeys (aged 12-20 y) receivedeither a standard unpurified diet plus 75 g fructose/d (control group; n = 9) or a standard unpurified diet, 75 g fructose/d,and 4 g FO (16% EPA 1 11% DHA)/d (treatment group; n = 10) for 6 mo. Importantly, our results showed that daily FOsupplementation in the monkeys prevented fructose-induced hypertriglyceridemia and insulin resistance as assessed byintravenous-glucose-tolerance testing (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, FO administration in the monkeys prevented fructoseinducedincreases in plasma apolipoprotein (Apo)C3, ApoE, and leptin concentrations and attenuated decreases incirculating adropin concentrations (P ≤ 0.05). No differences between the control and FO-treated monkeys were observedin body weight, lean mass, fat mass, or fasting glucose, insulin, and adiponectin concentrations. In conclusion, FOadministration in a nonhuman primate model of diet-induced MetS ameliorates many of the adverse changes in lipid andglucose metabolism induced by chronic fructose consumption. © 2014 American Society for Nutrition.